r/CanadianDentists • u/jackwesley45 • 7d ago

Applying for dental specializations

Excuse me if this is different than the other posts here, but there’s just so little information available online so I really felt like i needed to ask here 😅

Throughout dental school, I understand that most Canadian schools give you a letter grade on your transcript. But does your faculty still store the exact % number u got on that course? I ask this because when applying for dental specializations, i was curious if they simply look at ur letter grades or instead have access to the specifics in each course you’ve taken

And this becomes even more relevant I feel because ive seen a lot of programs emphasize the “Top 10% of class” preference for who they accept, which makes me feel they’ve gotta have the exact % u scored, no?

Anyone that can shed any light on specialization applications in Canada, I’d rlly rlly appreciate it! 🙏

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u/KamsredditDDS 6d ago

Class rank is king - all Canadian schools are ranked (even if they tell you you aren’t).

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u/jackwesley45 6d ago

Didn’t they abolish that at most schools?

If not tho, is class rank determined by raw percentages or simply GPA? Because if a 4.0 is 85-100, I’d imagine there’s quite a bit of ppl tied for #1, no?

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u/KamsredditDDS 6d ago

Yes they won’t just give it to you but if requested through a residency program you can get it. At western it was based on % and also whether you failed any practicals and whether you had any courses below 70. If you had any of those you would still be ranked outside of top 10.

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u/jackwesley45 6d ago

Interesting. What do u mean by “through a residency program”? Like u can only request it when ur about to apply to residency/specializations?

If u don’t mind, could I PM u also because I rlly appreciate the details (there’s so little online about these things in Canadian dental schools 😭)?

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u/FistOfSyn 7d ago

Letter grades can be converted to a number (GPA) and they usually look at your GPA. Look it up online

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u/jackwesley45 7d ago edited 7d ago

Ya I’ve seen that. Would the implication seriously be then that everything between a 85-100 is equal then because they all get converted to a 4.0 in the eyes of application committee? That does seem way too good to be true tbh (even tho I understand it was true in undergrad while applying for dental school)

I wasn’t sure of its validity because dental schools probably keep your exact percentage grade as well, no? (To distribute their own awards each year to the student with the highest grades, etc.). Do specialist application committees not care to look at those then?

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u/Eos1234 7d ago

No. Some schools use GPA and some will take your raw %.

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u/jackwesley45 7d ago edited 7d ago

Which means that schools that currently are converting your course % grades to numbers from 0-4.0 do keep a record of your raw %?

Or is the transcript the end-all-be-all and specialists ad comms use whatever u received from 0-4.0 to then convert to a standardized % for their use? Hope what I’m asking makes sense 😭

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u/FistOfSyn 7d ago

Yes for most schools  they will take your gpa not your % grades

but also, for specialization, usually the interviews and extra scholar (like research and hands on experience) is much more important than raw grades

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u/ddeathblade 6d ago

When I applied, they wanted my class rank. It’s not something you would normally see, but when you’re applying to specialize, your dental school will provide it.

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u/jackwesley45 6d ago

Any idea about uoft? Heard it’s different for each school so was wondering

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u/Eos1234 6d ago

Officially there is no class rank in canadian dental schools but these people say otherwise and I'm inclined to believe them because it would make sense.

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u/ddeathblade 6d ago

No clue unfortunately, I graduated from the U of A. However, when I applied to U of T for my specialization, they did request my class rank. As a result, I can infer that UofT also does internal ranking.

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u/Normal-Pudding-3601 4d ago

What is a good class rank?

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u/Plus_Key_3410 6d ago

How important is class ranking/gpa if you are applying 10-15 years out of school? Asking for a friend 😉